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TOPIC: Help with a quicky if you can DLA

As a result of your experience with the tribunal, can you advise me on this.

If there were things that would have been helpful to say in the DLA application form and you didnt make reference to them, but on discovering that you should have included these you can now make reference.

Can the tribunal consider these as additional information in repect of that particular claim if these things were relevent at the time but not mentioned.

Or would a tribunal consider that the DWP made there decision based on the info presented as it was, and its my fault for not mentioning them.

When I looked at the dla form, it appeared to me that the aids they are interested in is those that have been prescribed. now i know i was given the oportunity to give any futher info i wanted them to consider, unfortunatly i didnt. But for the tribunal, I have listed lots of things I use as aids and given an explanation how they help.

Another thing is I had reapplied for dla nov last year before my first tribunal april 09. (on advice from this site), I was awarded LRC even thogh my appeal was still pending. At the appeal in april, the disability panel member asked me about prescribed aids and I said no. She also asked me about pain clinic and i said no.

So the two things she questioned me about, made me think that I should have paid more attention to giving an explanation on these two issues alone. Unfortunatly for me, I had already completed a GL24 for the the appeal of my second application, and I am only now having my tribunal.

So in fact now because the issue came up at the original tribunal it has promted me give this info even tho not prescribed i can list numerous things that I use daily as aids, I can explain how they benefit me.

I wrote on my dla form in november something like i manage my own condition. I didnt really elaborate too much. But again, since being asked about not attending a pain clinic at the original tribunal, I have now detailed exactly how I manage my condition and with advice from my own gp, pacing myself, and using my own initiative etc, which I have learned over many years to do.

I am not claiming that there has been a change in my circumstances and my problems then are still my problems now. Its just I didnt elaborate enough, and now I want to elaborate.

Another thing I will be explaining at the tribunal is that I find it very difficult to be negative about my problems when the most important thing I can do to help myself is to think positivly. When you spend years trying to think positive and move on, and then a dla form arrives and you have to start thinking negative its hard to put yourself in an negative position, thats whay all the relevent information you could give dosnt automatically come to mind.

As a result of your experience with the tribunal, can you advise me on this.

If there were things that would have been helpful to say in the DLA application form and you didnt make reference to them, but on discovering that you should have included these you can now make reference.

Can the tribunal consider these as additional information in repect of that particular claim if these things were relevent at the time but not mentioned.

Or would a tribunal consider that the DWP made there decision based on the info presented as it was, and its my fault for not mentioning them.

Thanks Kathy x

Hi Kathy,

Sorry for the delay in replying, but I have been tied up with things related to my husband Jim's ill-health.

Although I'm not a qualified benefits adviser, I can only endorse Steve's comments. My experience of DLA is based on attending all training courses and the majority of tribunals during the ten years Jim sat on DLA tribunals until December 2005.

Under the old regulations, it used to be possible for an appellant to give evidence about not just their condition at the time the Decision Maker (DM) gave a decision, but on any other conditions they had contracted down to 'the day of the hearing'. Sadly this is no longer possible due to new regulations made quite a few years ago.

For example, an appellant who was appealing because they had mobility and care problems due to severe arthritis, but whilst awaiting an appeal date due to say a heart attack, the tribunal used to be able to take this new condition into consideration in deciding their appeal.

This is no longer allowed, they can only take into consideration, the claimant's condition up to the day the DM reached the decision. Any new conditions arising after that date have to be made in a new claim. Believe me, tribunals were as unhappy about the change in the regulations as appellants were.

I hope this information is of help.

Good luck.

Best wishes.

Pat

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